Wicomico removes rotting light poles at four parks

A county contractor took down the wooden poles at the four facilities last year after an engineering analysis found the vast majority in poor condition and in need of replacement.

Brayten Danbon, 5, hangs out in the baseball dugout during a T-ball scrimmage as twilight falls Wednesday night on Cope Bennett Park in Sharptown. <137>Wicomico County tore down the park’s its light poles last fall because of structural issues.<137>(Photo: Staff photo by Jeremy Cox)

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Wicomico County took down the lights at four parks because the poles had rotted away.

One pole at Wicomico Memorial Field fell last fall, prompting an engineering analysis of the poles at other parks.

Replacing the poles at two of the fields is expected to cost $400,000; no new lights are planned for the other two.

A county contractor took down the wooden poles at the four facilities last year after an engineering analysis found the vast majority in poor condition and in need of replacement.

About a third of the aging poles were in such bad shape, the engineering firm of Davis, Bowen & Friedel urged county officials to have them removed right away.

Just two of the 20 poles were deemed strong enough to continue standing, but they were taken down anyway.

Safety was the driving concern, said Gary Mackes, head of Wicomico’s recreation, parks and tourism department. When the dust settled, all light poles with the exception of a few for security purposes were removed at Wicomico Memorial and Harmon fields in Salisbury, Cope Bennett Park in Sharptown and Hebron Park and Community Center.­

Their absence is becoming glaring in the small communities of Sharptown and Hebron. Anything that affects the use of the parks, community leaders there say, is a blow to civic life.

“The whole facility is really community-based,” said Kirby Travers, president of the Hebron Lions Club, which leases the 8-acre park property to the county. “There’s always folks down there. You’d be hard pressed not to find somebody down there.”

Wicomico Memorial’s lights were taken down in spring 2013. The others came down in the fall after soccer season ended.

The parks largely go dormant during the winter. So it’s only in the past few weeks with the stirring of spring sports, such as softball and baseball, that participants have begun to ­notice the change.

At a recent T-ball practice in Sharptown, gloom fell unabated over the field as 5-year-olds took turns smacking a bright yellow softball off a tee. About a dozen or so parents watched from aluminum bleachers at the park, which lies on the southern bank of the ­Nanticoke River.

The loss of lights “really impacts the kids the most,” said Mike Murphy as he watched his two sons play. “It really brings the community together and makes Sharptown what it is.”

The coaches called an end to the practice just before the light faded to the point of rendering play impossible.

The county, Murphy added, needs to make replacing the lights “a priority to show a little ­support for the local community.”­

County Executive Rick Pollitt’s budget proposal calls for spending $400,000 to erect new lights at Sharptown and Hebron. Of that, $360,000 is expected to come from the state Department of Natural Resources’ Program Open Space fund, and the remaining $40,000 would come from the county.

The proposal for the 2015 budget year is now in the hands of the County Council, which is scheduled to make a final vote by June 13.

The lights aren’t slated to return at Harmon or Wicomico Memorial, Mackes said. Most night activities that take place at those venues can be moved to the Henry S. Parker Athletic Complex.­

Wicomico Memorial is the home field for Wicomico High’s baseball team and the Salisbury Colt/Palomino League. It’s also where the county’s rotting-pole problem made itself known — with a thud.

During a severe thunderstorm, one the field’s light poles fell over, crushing portions of a fence and a dugout.

The pole fell at night when no one was around at Wicomico Memorial Field. But it was a wake-up call for county officials.­

“It pressed us to have the rest of the poles inspected,” Mackes said.

Wicomico baseball coach Otis Elzey said the sudden loss of the field certainly didn’t help the team’s performance. The team practiced at a field at the nearby City Park and played its home games at Henry S. Parker for about three weeks until the repairs were finished.­

“It was a big distraction and it certainly affected our team,” Elzey said. “I think we won three games last year.”

The heavy machinery used in the demolition appeared to deepen existing ruts in right field, he said. That led to flooding that forced a scheduled home game against Snow Hill to be moved to the visiting team’s park, a game Wicomico would lose.

The missing lights haven’t been a big issue yet in Sharptown, said Town Commission President Doug Gosnell. The county has told him to expect new lights in 2015.

“If they came back and said it would be four years before they come back, we’d have a problem,” he added.

jcox6@dmg.gannett.com

410-845-4630

On Twitter @Jeremy_Cox

BY THE NUMBERS

4 Parks

requiring the removal of rotted wooden light poles: Wicomico Memorial and Harmon fields in Salisbury, Cope Bennett Park in Sharptown and Hebron Park and Community Center